Quotes by Miguel de Cervantes

"

To thoughtful people all past or present events help them to judge future ones.

"

If the wise few praise you, do not heed the scorn of fools.

"

You don't escape poverty either by cutting leaves from the dogs, or by being lazy.

"

Talking without thinking is the same as shooting without aiming.

"

Pain can equally bind and unbind the tongue of the sufferer.

"

It's a shame if the woman looks less beautiful than she could.

"

Doing good to fools is the same as pouring water into the sea.

"

Good deeds should never be delayed: any procrastination is reckless and dangerous.

"

If all that glittered were made of gold, gold would be much cheaper.

"

Every comedy, like every song, has its time and its season.

"

Every man must be judged according to his deeds.

"

Everything in the world can be straightened out, except death.

"

Extraordinary people are capable of extraordinary kindness.

"

In the presence of the object of love, even the boldest tongues are silenced, and exactly what would have been said more remains unsaid.

"

In any science, in any art, the best teacher is experience.

"

In misfortune, fate always leaves an escape hatch.

"

In the life of heroes there is a limit of happiness and fame at which they must stop; if they go further, they will bring misery and contempt.

"

There is no place for happiness in cowardly souls.

"

There are people whose knowledge of Latin does not prevent them from being donkeys.

"

Live according to the truth - here is the best teaching.

"

The merits of the father do not extend to the son.

"

A brave heart overcomes all troubles.

"

Praise is good only when the praiser is also good.

"

Truth sometimes bends, but never breaks, and rises above lies like oil above water.

"

Jealousy always looks through the telescope and makes small objects big, dwarfs giants, suspicions truths.

"

The most dangerous trap, which only the devil can set for a man, is to instill in him the idea that he can write a book that will bring him as much fame as money, and as much money as fame.

"

The word is like a stone: if the hand has thrown it, you can't get it back.

"

Lady Death has more power than delicacy - here's who is completely devoid of preciousness.

"

It behooves brave hearts to be as patient in times of distress as they are joyful in times of prosperity.

"

Nothing is more handy and nothing is more precious than politeness.

"

There is no pain or suffering, physical or mental, that does not weaken with time and that death cannot heal.

"

Even the best medicine will not help the sick person if he refuses to take it.

"

History is the treasury of our deeds, the witness of the past, an example and lesson for the present, a warning for the future.

"

He who does not know how to enjoy happiness when it comes, need not complain when it disappears.

"

Better colored on the face than stained on the soul.

"

Love wears such glasses through which copper looks like gold, poverty like wealth, and the sparks of fire like pearls.

"

Limbus usually gives rise to boredom.

"

You cannot love under compulsion.

"

There can be no victory in any field for those who are sluggish, and they cannot be happy, those who never defy their fate, but live in an increasingly idle, mind-destroying, languid laziness.

"

For young men, love is mostly nothing more than an appetite, once it is satisfied, it is destroyed.

"

Consider that he who seeks the impossible deserves to lose the possible.

"

It shouldn't be a big problem for a person, I think, if he spends a poem in the meantime.

"

One does not write with gray hair, but with one's mind, which tends to become more mature with age.

"

In order to maintain official authority, it is often appropriate and necessary to act contrary to the humility of one's heart. For when a man holds an important office, he must hold authority as the office demands, and he must not conform to his own humble nature.

"

There is no memory that time does not erase, no pain that death does not eliminate.

"

Man has no power over the first poison.

"

Whoever was defeated today can be victorious again tomorrow!

"

Always keep in mind who you are, take care to know yourself; more difficult than that cannot be imagined. If you know yourself, you don't puff up like the frog when it wanted to be bigger than the ox.

"

I have often heard that so-called nature is like a potter who makes earthenware pots, and if he can make one beautiful one, he can also make two or three hundred.

"

There is nothing that more vividly reveals to us what we are and what we should be than the stage and the actors. Or tell me: have you never seen a play in which kings, emperors, high priests, knights, ladies and other persons appeared? One plays the robber, another the swindler, that the merchant, that the soldier, another the clever fool, the third the fool in love: when the play is over and the actors take off their masks, one is like the other. (...) The same thing happens, you see, on the stage of this world and according to its flow: there is an emperor, a high priest, in other words, as many characters as there can be in a play. However, when the play is over, i.e. when life is over: death strips all the characters of their clothing, which distinguished them from the others, and in the grave they will all be equal.

"

A joke is a sign of cleverness; and jokes and stupidity (...) are not common in dwarf souls!

"

Time reveals everything, leaves nothing hidden, but brings it to the light of day, even if it was hidden in the depths of the earth.

"

It would be better if everyone let their anger sleep: because it is impossible to know who lives in what, a small person, a big stick, the small pot boils quickly, many people go for wool and come back shorn, the God blessed peace, and cursed the competition; because if the caged, squeezed, nagged cat can also become a lion: God is the one who can say what I, who am human, cannot become.

"

When it comes to love, the actions, movements, and outward expressions of lovers are the surest messengers between two lovers, and they convey a message about what is happening in the depths of the heart.

"

The truth can be torn, but not broken, and it always floats above a lie like oil above water.

"

If virtue is your measure, and you focus your main concern on acting virtuously, then you will have no reason to envy princes and lords, because we inherit blood, but virtue must be achieved, acquired, and virtue itself has value, and blood does not.

"

Ingratitude is the daughter of pride and one of the greatest sins; if someone is grateful to his benefactors, he will also be grateful to God, because he has received so much good from God and will continue to do so in the future.

"

That certain Mrs. Fortuna is a very capricious wench, but she's also blind, she doesn't see what she's doing, and she doesn't know who she's pushing away or who she's lifting up.

"

The point is to be lucky in the beginning.

"

The child, Lord, is a part of his parents' being, so whether it is good or bad, we must love it as we would our own life and soul.

"

The dream alleviates the misery that afflicts the waking person!

"

What a terrible trouble you inflict on me, how terrible, when I think about it, Cupid, I am not afraid of death, waiting for the end of my torments only from him. (...) So life kills me until death gives me back my life. It is unheard of how life and death torment me in this existence!

"

Blessed be he who invented sleep, for this cloak covers all human cares, this food quenches hunger, this drink quenches thirst, this fire warms the cold, this cold cools the hot, so the dream is money, that you can buy everything with it, such a measuring pan and weight that it makes the shepherd equal to the king, the simpleton to the wise. There is only one bad thing about the dream, that, as I heard, it resembles death, because there is very little difference between the dead and the sleeping person.

"

Proverbs are short, pithy sayings that our wise men have drawn from experience and thinking; a proverb that is misapplied is more foolish than wise.

"

There is a big difference between doing something out of love or gratitude. It is possible that one or the other knight is not in love, but strictly speaking, he must not be ungrateful under any circumstances.

"

Nothing is worth anything, unless someone learns and learns and has a patron, and luck also favors him: a person does not even dream, suddenly he realizes that either a judge's rod is pressed into his hand or a bishop's bottle is pressed into his head.

"

Oh envy, you root of innumerable evils and deadly worm of virtues! With every other sin (...) there is something pleasant, but with envy there is nothing but listlessness, anger and fury.

"

It is the nature and habit of despised and scorned poets to revenge themselves in satires and mocking poems on the ladies, married or unmarried, whom they have chosen as the idols of their hearts; but this revenge is certainly not suitable for noble hearts.

"

Nowadays, laziness triumphs over serenity, idleness over zeal, sin over virtue, arrogance over courage.

"

A mouth without a tooth is like a mill without a stone, and the tooth is more precious than the diamond itself.

"

One person is not more than another, if he does not act more than the other!

"

Fear causes (...) that you neither see nor hear clearly, because one of the common effects of fear is that it confuses the senses, and objects look completely different than they really are.

"

The contagion of love, with the greed of cursed pursuit, penetrates even there through the crevices or through the air, and, despite all precautions, falls its victim.

"

Beauty is matched by sanctity; while laughing over small things: unwiseness.

"

It happens that one or another father has an ugly and quite unadorned son; yet his fatherly love draws a veil over his eyes, he doesn't even notice his child's faults, in fact he often considers them nice and attractive qualities, and tells his friends about them as if they were smart and charming.

"

Tranquility, a quiet place, a gentle field, a clear sky, the murmur of springs, the calmness of the soul have a great influence on the fact that even the most barren muses are fertile, and their offspring fill the world with wonder and delight.

"

A quote is a short sentence based on long experiences.

"

Indeed, there is no parable that is not true, because all such sayings draw from experience itself, and this is the mother of all science.

"

A sailor of love, I toss and turn in the wind of great seas, and I have no hope of reaching any ship. (...) The minute you leave me will be the end of me.

"

There is a good reason why Amor measures his victory dearly; because there is nothing beyond his greatest carat that anything can give, and it is a testimony to the world that there is no great value, nothing that has no great price.

"

It is always hateful and always breeds bad blood when someone compares one soul with another, one brave with another, one beautiful with another, one family with another.

"

My view (...) is that all madness originates from the fact that a person's stomach is empty and his brain is full of air. Only courage, courage! For in their misfortune despair consumes health and hastens death.

"

Virtue always shines forth, even through the ills and narrow openings of vice.

"

No matter how good something is, abundance always diminishes its value, but even the meanest thing has some value if it is scarce.

"

It is more fitting for a soldier to die in battle than to flee; I am so convinced that if today someone were to offer the impossible and make the choice possible, I would still choose to be present at that glorious event, rather than to have all my limbs intact, but not to be able to say that I was a part of this battle .

"

The wounds on the soldiers' faces and chests are guiding stars and show others the way to the desire for glory and the deserved award!

"

The parable says (...) that good luck is the mother of serenity, and experience has indeed shown in many important matters that those who approach it with serenity, even in dubious matters, have succeeded. This truth, however, is realized in nothing more than in warfare, where speed and agility precede the measures of the enemy, and win the victory sooner than the adversary can even think of defense.

"

The impossible often retreats before unbridled, stubborn desire; and even if my love aspires to an unseemly height, I will not extend it until I reach from the earth to the sky.

"

The characteristic of noble and great souls is that they do not care about small things.